Aun’Wei

Aun’Wei was the Ethereal Supreme of the T’au, who authorised the Second Sphere Expansion and, late in life, the Third, before Aun’Va succeeded him. The Ethereals are the T’au caste of leaders, and the Sphere Expansions are the successive phases of T’au territorial growth.

Aun’Wei held the supreme Ethereal office when the Second Sphere Expansion began, and his word launched it. After the events at Damocles, he was elderly, and his protégé Aun’Va persuaded him to authorise the Third Sphere Expansion. That decision changed the T’au Empire from a cautious power into an aggressive one. When the Last Walk came, Aun’Wei withdrew into a temple-dome, as Ethereals do, and Aun’Va took the title Master of the Undying Spirit.

The Fire Caste, the T’au warrior caste, remembers Aun’Wei as the elder who signed the expansions. It does not record him halting any of them. The Greater Good, the T’au guiding philosophy, required a first signature, and Aun’Wei supplied it. Aun’Va provided the hologram that outlasted a body.